Hollywild Animal Park, the Greenville Zoo and Columbia's Riverbanks Zoo and Garden can all provide families with a wild encounter or two with animals that roar, fly, slither or swim.

Riverbanks Zoo

Exotic animal encounters are just an hour and a half from the Upstate, at Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia.

The 100-acre zoo is home to more than 2,000 animals representing 350 species from around the world, including the state's only gorillas, Mike and Chaka, which delight visitors as they walk up to viewing windows. The 70-acre botanical garden features more than 4,300 varieties of native and exotic plants.

Other residents include tiny naked mole rats, four female African elephants, lions, brown bears, koalas, primates of all sizes, tropical birds, sharks, snakes and other reptiles, colorful frogs, a variety of invertebrates and birds decked out in breathtaking plumage.

Zoo spokeswoman Susan O'Cain said a popular feature of the zoo is the Giraffe Lookout, where guests can feed the tall, stately giraffes when they walk up. Visitors can also hand-feed nectar to the sociable, colorful lorikeets that perch on visitors' hands, shoulders or even their heads for a treat.

Guests can also walk among kangaroos and wallabies at the Kangaroo Walkabout or challenge themselves with the Sky-High Safari, a four-story vertical ropes course featuring more than 30 climbing elements, such as rope ladders, cargo nets, rickety bridges and tight rope-style footlines.

Behind-the-scenes Adventure Tours can be booked online at www.riverbanks.org.

Hollywild Animal Park

Lions and tigers and bears are all at home at Hollywild Animal Park, but there seem to be bears and more bears of late.

The park celebrated the birth of a Syrian brown bear cub that fans of the park have named Syriana Nyeff, to recognize her Syrian heritage. Nyeff is a Syrian name that means “above all.”

The female cub is called Syri for short, and joins triplets born at the park last year. The Syrian brown bear is one of the most endangered, rarest bear species in the world. They're considered extinct in their native countries of Eurasia, and there are only a few in the United States.

Although Syri will grow to be 350 to 450 pounds, on a crisp March day, Jennifer Decarranza, animal curator for the park, cuddled her in a Care Bears blanket. Decarranza watched like a proud mom as Syri toddled across the grass.

Hollywild's animals have appeared in numerous national advertising campaigns, photo shoots, brochures, art exhibits, conferences, private parties, nativities and more than 65 feature films. The hand-reared animals and owner David Meeks' expert handling make them adaptable to many environments.

Some of the big cats, such as Kashmir the tiger and Cricket, a mountain lion, will come up to the front of their enclosures to get a closer look at the people gathered around. Cricket makes a meowing sound very much like a house cat.

Hollywild offers a safari ride through 70 acres on which dozens of animals roam, such as fallow, sika and white tail deer, zebras, buffalo, Watusi cattle, Scottish highlander cattle, donkeys and emus. Safari participants can feed the animals with a bag of crackers, dog biscuits and other crunchy treats the park has for sale. Also on safari, visitors can see Tank, the rhinoceros star of the Zicam commercials.

Other animal encounters are likely at the park, as chickens and ducks roam freely, and goats and miniature donkeys eagerly approach for a treat. And always, always, there is a beautiful peacock walking in one's shadow during a tour of the park, waiting for a handout. The park's white male peacock is a beautiful sight to behold as he displays his snowy white plumage.

At Christmas, the park is decked out in light displays.

But Kim Atchley, spokeswoman for the park, encourages visitors to come out during the warmer weather to experience the animals up close.

Greenville Zoo

A variety of furry, feathered, scaly and exotic animals make their home amid downtown Greenville at the Greenville Zoo.

From a toco toucan to Ozzie the pot-bellied pig and Bob the orangutan, to alligators and a gigantic snapping turtle, Brazilian ocelots, Chilean flamingos standing on one leg in their pond, slithery lizards and snakes, and a creepy black widow spider and hissing cockroaches, children and adults delight in the variety of species from all over the world.

Zoo director Jeffrey Bullock led a tour of the facility.

Amy, one of three Aldabra tortoises pulled her head into her massive shell when a photographer came too close with a camera.

Selma, an aging black-headed spider monkey, expressed joy as Bullock walked past the enclosure she shares with her granddaughter, Jasmine, and a male, Mojo. Selma clung to the wire, cooing to Bullock.

The Siamangs, part of the Gibbon family, put on a noisy and acrobatic show whenever a crowd gathers at their enclosure, Bullock said.

Nearby, the rarest animals at the zoo, leopard triplets Jade, Emerald and Clover, born three years ago on St. Patrick's Day in South Bend, Ind., laze around their shelter. They are Amur leopards, of which there are 200 to 250 left in the world in zoos, and only about 35 left in the wild.

Joy and Ladybird are the zoo's largest inhabitants — both 43-year-old African elephants. Joy is also its longest resident, coming to the zoo in 1977. Joy has sometimes been known to take a paintbrush in trunk. Her works of art, some on display in the zoo office, sell for $250 and raise money for the zoo, Bullock said. Due to changing regulations, elephants will eventually be phased out at the Greenville Zoo. New regulations require a larger enclosure for pachyderms, and the zoo doesn't have the space.

Although some animals may leave, there are plans for expansion at the Greenville Zoo and continued breeding programs. Zoo officials hope a female red panda will arrive this year to join the male to form a breeding pair.

Bullock said he hopes to exchange one of the zoo's two male lions for a female and expand the lion enclosure to make room for cubs.

And of course, the Greenville Zoo is home to a breeding pair of giraffes that captivated the Carolinas and far beyond when their first offspring came into the world last October and was witnessed by thousands via webcam.

By March, that “little” calf named Kiko, about 6 feet tall when he made his splashy debut on camera, had grown 2.5 feet taller, Bullock said.

Kiko will eventually move to another zoo as part of a breeding program, but for now, he is the star of the Greenville Zoo: His celebrity status apparent as a chorus of youngsters gathered at the front of the giraffe paddock.

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